Today we will be revealing the full stat cards for the Season 3 Hunters Guild expansion, TheHeralds of the Winter’s Moon. Then we will be walking through some of the basics of using the new Hunters players in both Skatha- and Theron-led lineups before finishing off with some super swanky Hunter tactics for scoring VPs in exciting new ways!

We will be building on some of the ideas that we discussed in our last article which, if you missed for some reason, stop right now! Go back and have a look at our introduction to the Heralds of the Winter’s Moon here!

SKATHA, CHAMPION OF THE MOON GODDESS

In our last article, we talked about some of the inspirations for Skatha’s design and her overall goal-scoring playstyle. Now let’s take a look at her card in all its glory:

*whistles* Well… where do we start? I mean look at that card, just look at it! It’s beautiful! A Playbook FULL of great Momentous choices including a cheeky Momentous [2] damage right in the middle—quite useful if Skatha needs to get her hands dirty and take someone down. There’s also that Momentous Tackle on the second column and plenty of Dodge options all over the place. Yep, this Playbook is a goal scorers best friend. On top of that, a really interesting Momentous play icon Playbook result on the fifth column links to a Character Play we neglected to mention last time around…

Cold Snap is an offensive AOE Character Play, and this is the first time, not counting Midas’ Legendary Play, that a player has been able to inflict the snared condition on multiple enemies at once! Not only that, but this is also the first time that we have given an offensive AOE Character Play a Playbook trigger. This means that if Skatha triggers Cold Snap from her Playbook, not only does it generate a Momentum Point but it automatically hits every player under the AOE! Take that Nimbled DEF [6+] Velocity!

Imagine, Seenah waiting for the signal to charge into the fray like a giant angry snowman, when suddenly he's hit by a Snowball in the side of the head as Skatha orders him to Dodge forward… just before she places a Nature’s Chill AOE underneath him and uses Cold Snap on a nearby enemy player. Suddenly, you've moved Seenah [4”] toward the enemy, given him an extra [+2”/+2] MOV AND inflicted the snared condition on his charge target. Seenah, he hasn’t even activated yet! That’s just incredible!

Lastly, we have the Blessing of the Moon Goddess, in many ways this is a miniature version of Skatha’s Legendary Play Winter’s Night. Using that on Ulfr or Jaecar before they activate may just get them that little bit of extra movement required to get into goal scoring range. Against particularly high DEF enemies, it means even a single net hit would allow these two models to generate Momentum and Dodge [2”], which is hugely important for escaping enemy melee zones. This Character Play is also effective in defence, as Blessing of the Moon Goddess also works when making a Counter Attack. The same players being able to generate that all-important [2”] of Dodge on just a single hit may discourage enemies from even Attacking them!

SNOW, SPIRIT HOUND

In our last article, we discussed how Snow was man’s (the Hunters’) best friend, and now it’s time to show you what we we’re talking about:

We’ll level with you all. We know wolves aren’t strictly dogs, but we love dogs. In terms of Snow’s card, its Character Traits like Oooh… BALL! that complete it. A rule oozing with flavor (fellow dog lovers will know what we’re talking about) and usefulness. If a friendly player happens to miss a Pass that one time and Snow is nearby, there is fair chance that he will rescue the ball for you to keep the Hunters in possession. You could also opt to trigger this ability by making a Pass into open space on the Pitch for Snow to run onto to go on a mad Mascot-goal-scoring run like an absolute champ.

For super crazy tactics, you could even have Snow Pass the ball into open space to trigger Oooh… BALL! for himself for some extra movement up toward the enemy goal! If Snow activates with the ball, makes a Pass to open space which scatters to [6”] in front of him, he gets to make a [5”] Jog, followed by a [7”] Sprint with a [4”] kicking range for a casual [16”] total goal threat range!

ULFR, BLESSED OF THE HUNT

In our last article, we introduced you to the wildest of the Hunters Guild, Ulfr. A that looks so deranged that he’s often mistaken for a beast. Just to emphasize the point, we even gave him the [Animal] model type:

A fitting playbook for a wild man and another hint at one of the sub-themes of the Heralds of the Winter’s Moon: yet another Momentous [2] damage result to fall back on should things get messy. However, most of the Playbook is dominated by Momentous Dodge results and a very low trigger for Where’d They Go? to complete his striker’s tool kit. There is also a particularly handy combination of results should Ulfr ever wrap his Playbook with [6] net hits—the [3] damage & double Dodge result on his 5th column is easily paired with his single Momentous Dodge on the 1st column to generate easy Momentum and a total of [3”] of Dodge movement. Alternatively, if Ulfr wraps with [7] net hits he could take either the Momentous double-Dodge and the Where’d They Go? trigger or the [3] damage & double-Dodge and the Where’d They Go? trigger. Both will generate [6”] of Dodge at once!

The reason we specifically mentioned wrapping the Playbook is that Ulfr’s tool kit is particularly good at enabling them. The combination of Ambush, Blood Scent, Lone Hunter, and that Playbook is what makes it possible. Being able to charge a target and not worry about a Defensive Stance is doubly important for Ulfr because he benefits so much from wrapping his Playbook for multiple results. In an ideal situation, you will have the ball on or nearby Ulfr at the start of a turn and activate him first. If Ulfr is the first player to activate first in a turn he can Charge an enemy model when they are unable to use Defensive Stance, this is because the opponent will only have [1] MP and Ambush increases the cost to [2] MP. If Ulfr is charging an enemy that isn’t close to any other Hunters he will also get his bonus from Lone Hunter giving him a total of [10] TAC dice! Against a lot of enemies this will give Ulfr a good chance of wrapping his Playbook for a combination of Momentous Dodge and damage results to escape the opponent’s melee zone, get into goal scoring range, trigger Blood Scent, and grab a Momentum Point to score with all at once.

VETERAN HEARNE, ORACLE OF THE MOON GODDESS

In our last article, we reintroduced you to Hearne, although he wasn’t quite as you remembered him. Veteran Hearne is a colder, sharper, instrument of the Moon Goddess than he ever was as the Scion of the Sun Father:

Veteran Hearne’s Playbook was another opportunity to copy an element from original Hearne and update it just a little to show how he has changed. There are a number of similarities such as the identical location for the Momentous play icon Playbook result on the 5th column and the Momentous [3] damage just before it on the 4th column. However, the most important columns on any Playbook is usually the first 1–3 column, as these will be the ones most regularly accessed throughout a game of Guild Ball. In these early columns, we gave Veteran Hearne access to an earlier Momentous knock-down result and a Momentous Tackle result than he had previously to symbolize the role we expect him to have on the Pitch. That of a melee disruptor who specializes in keeping opponents at arm’s length—with his [2”] melee zone—and on the ground, thanks to his easily accessible Momentous knock-down Playbook result.

Another aspect that coaches may be quick to spot is the upgraded INF stat of [2/3]. The original version of Hearne was engineered to be more Influence efficient by the expenditure of Momentum Points through his Heroic Play Blessing of the Sun Father. Even though Veteran Hearne has a form of this efficiency in his Character Play Last Light, the cost in Momentum Points for Veteran Hearne is comparatively higher, which necessitated Veteran Hearne’s higher INF stat.

BLESSED OF THE MOON: SKATHA-LED LINE UPS

So, you’ve seen the cards, you’re hyped about all the new fun stuff to try out. It’s time to see how these babies play on the Pitch. One of the first Skatha line ups that we would recommend trying out is the following:

Skatha (C)

Snow (M)

Egret

Jaecar

Ulfr

Veteran Hearne

This is a team that is bursting to the seams with pace and each player has an excellent set of Pushes or Dodges on their Playbooks to use in combination with Skatha’s Blessing of the Moon Goddess and Winter’s Night. Such a high amount of Pushes and Dodges should also help keep these players safe when combining Counter Attacks with Snow’s Pack Mentality Dodges.

The other thing that coaches should keep an eye on when it comes to player selection is ‘how much snared condition can I put out?’ This particularly important for several reasons. First, there are multiple Hunters who become even more powerful when Attacking a snared enemy player. Seenah and Fahad, for example, get increased damage due to Isolated Target Character Trait, and Veteran Hearne gains access to Lunar Eclipse, which lets him teleport. Second, the sheer power of the snared condition to reduce enemy DEF and MOV means a Hunter coach should always try to make sure they have options for its use built into their team.

This type of Hunters team should be looking to win by scoring [3] goals or by scoring [2] goals and [2] take-downs. This team can do thanks to players who can both threaten enemy players and score goals, like Skatha, Jaecar, and Ulfr.

When you’ve played with Skatha a few times then it might be time to move onto something with more teeth:

Skatha (C)

Fahad (M)

Minx

Seenah

Ulfr

Veteran Hearne

This team can deal some serious damage in melee. The idea here is to use Skatha’s abilities to further improve the mobility of your players so that they can reach just about any target on the Pitch.

Earlier in this article we mentioned Skatha using Snowball and passing the Snowball to Seenah to trigger the Give’n’Go Teamwork action to Dodge him [4”] forward. If Skatha then uses Nature’s Chill to place her fast-ground AOE underneath Seenah, he will gain [+2”/+2”] MOV if he starts his advance while standing on the fast-ground. Put it together, and we’ve added an extra [6”] to Seenah’s maximum charge range, so he could reach an enemy model [15”] away from where he started! This trick isn’t limited to Seenah either. One of the massive benefits of Skatha is that this trick works on any friendly player, whether they want to get into the perfect position to Charge or line up a Shot on goal. It even works on Union models like Minx.

In addition, the team can benefit a lot from Winter’s Night Frost Tokens. If Jaecar can’t quite get to a weakened enemy player, even with his own considerable speed, he could engage a different nearby enemy and Attack them to use the Frost Token’s extra movement to engage his true target.

This type of Hunter team should be looking to win by scoring [2] goals and [2] take-downs or by scoring [1] goal and [4] take-downs (not counting any extra VP Seenah earns by using Bear Hug).

SUPER SWANKY HUNTER TACTICS

‘The Acrobat’

This tactic doesn’t involve any players other than the Champion of the Moon Goddess herself, Skatha. Here, we are going to walk you through scoring goals from incredible distances.

SETUP: Skatha with [6] Influence and some nearby enemies – yep, that’s it! It helps if Skatha has the ball, but it’s certainly not a requirement.

1. Skatha activates, drops a Nature’s Chill AOE underneath her, and makes a [9”] Sprint to engage her first target. Skatha then uses Winter’s Night where she can catch as many of the opposing team as possible.

2. Skatha makes an Attack and selects the Momentous Dodge on her 1st column and uses the Frost Token on the enemy model for an additional Push-Dodge Playbook result. Skatha generated [1] MP and Push-Dodged away from her target. But, oh no! Now we don’t have anyone in Skatha’s melee zone!

3. Skatha uses Snowball and makes a Pass targeting the nearby friendly model. The successful Pass means Skatha can use the Momentous Teamwork action, Give’n’Go, to Dodge herself [4”] into melee with another enemy. This time the one that has the ball-marker.

4. Skatha makes an Attack and selects the Momentous Tackle on her 2nd column and uses the Frost Token on the enemy model for an additional Push-Dodge Playbook result. Skatha generated [1] MP, Push-Dodged away from her target and stole the ball!

6. Skatha is now in range to make a Shot and spends her last Influence and [1] MP to attempt to score a goal, she uses the second MP that she earned to use Bonus Time! on the Shot attempt, and scores!

In this example, Skatha moved a total of [16”], Tackled the ball, generated [2] Momentum Points, and made a shot [6”] away from goal, meaning she stole the ball and then scored from [22”] away!

‘The Daisy Chain’

This tactic mainly involves the Oracle of the Moon Goddess, Veteran Hearne. Here, we are going to walk you through scoring a more opportunistic goal than previously shown.

SETUP: Veteran Hearne with [3] Influence is standing in some rough-ground or fast-ground. There are some nearby enemies who are suffering the snared condition. Again, it helps if Veteran Hearne has the ball. In our example, he will start with it in his possession.

2. Veteran Hearne makes an Attack and selects his Momentous [3] damage result on his 4th Playbook column and uses Lunar Eclipse to place himself on the other side of the model he Attacked. This causes Veteran Hearne to be engaging another enemy model that is also suffering the snared condition.

3. Veteran Hearne make another Attack but this time doesn’t roll as well because he is crowded out. This time Veteran Hearne selects his [1] damage result on his first column and uses Lunar Eclipse to place himself on the other side of the model he Attacked.

4. Veteran Hearne is in range to shoot, so he spends his last Influence and the MP he earned to make a Shot on goal. And he scores!

In this example, Veteran Hearne moved a total of [17”], generated [1] Momentum Point, and made a Shot [6”] away from the goal, meaning he scored from [23”] away!

Well there you have it! Thank you Jamie Perkins for writing these tactica for the Heralds of the Winter's Moon! Do YOU have any tactics you want to share with us? Let us know on our Forums, Facebookor Twitter.